My Hawaiian Alaskan Adventure

A lot of people have never been to Hawaii or Alaska. A week ago I was one those people. Now, I can say I've been to both. I never would have imagined that in one week I would go to the two states that are not part of the continental US. I'm very blessed to have had these incredible opportunities. Both trips were for interviews, one with the University of Hawaii Manoa and one with the University of Alaska Fairbanks. Last Tuesday I left Pensacola and went to Honolulu. Thursday I left Honolulu, arrived back into Pensacola on Friday morning, and 3.5 hours later (seriously) left Pensacola for Fairbanks, AK, and returned yesterday. I had a total of 10 flights (all with Delta) in only 7 days. I am completely exhausted between all the traveling, interviewing, and time changes, but it is unbelievably worth it for the adventure I was able to have. Both trips I had some time to explore and it was pretty incredible. The interviews went well, and I'd be completely happy working at either place.

Ready to take on interviews.

My first night in Hawaii they took me out for curry (delicious) and then for dessert where I got to try mochi covered ice cream (incredible). After my interview day we went down to Waikiki Beach and got to walk around down there. We ate dinner at a restaurant overlooking the water. Pretty amazing. For my 'fun day' they took me to Pearl Harbor, which was incredible. It was very meaningful and educational. The weather was also amazing! After Pearl Harbor we went and got lunch at a diner. Then went and got shaved ice (at Obama's favorite shaved ice place) which was incredible. It's probably not what you expect, but trust me it's delicious.  After that we checked out a couple less tourist-y beaches which were gorgeous. Then it was back to the airport. Hawaii is now the furthest west I've ever been.

Mochi covered ice cream - green tea, mango, and chocolate espresso flavors

Got a lei for my interview day!

The view from the housing office

Waikiki Beach

The Japanese garden on campus.

USS Arizona Memorial

Kailua Beach

Lanikai Beach

I was back in Pensacola for 3.5 hours. Useless. I had a friend pick me up and take me to breakfast. I switched out my suitcases and it was back to the airport. I was exhausted by that point and had so much more to go still. So I got some caffeine in me and kept going.

Alaska was pretty spectacular. The view from campus was pretty breathtaking, as you could see the Alaska range, including Mt. McKinley. I got to see a baby reindeer! After my interview dinner they gave me a driving tour of Fairbanks. After that I met up with a friend from college who lives in Fairbanks and a friend of his. They showed me the town. I got to see what they called "Fairbanks Beach". Not much of a beach. We went and saw the pipeline (I touched the pipeline!). Ended the night up at this place called Murphy's Dome where we watched the start of the sunrise, and on the way up we saw a couple of moose. We met some people up there and joined by their fire since it was chilly. Then the next day we got brunch at a place on the river, played mini golf, checked out Pioneer Park, wandered about downtown, drove up to Chena Hot Springs, went into the ice museum, drank appletinis out of ice glasses, and then grabbed dinner. Alaska is now the furthest north I've ever been.

The view from campus. It's hard to tell, but you can see the Alaska range.

I was pretty exhausted, but going strong.

Possibly my favorite part of the ice museum.

Me and the pipeline

This is "Fairbanks Beach"

Had brunch here and played mini golf.

Pioneer Park.

The sunset just before midnight and rose just before 4am. It was weird and difficult to adjust to. It never really got dark, just dusk-like. It was pretty cool. The view of the sunrise at Murphy's Dome was incredible and totally worth it.

The view from Murphy's Dome.

This was as dark as it got.

The next day it was back to the airport and back to Pensacola. It was one heck of an adventure and I'm so glad I had the opportunity to go to both Hawaii and Alaska. Now it's back to the waiting game until I hear from the schools.

My Life Month as a Vegan - Halfway!

Day 17.

Since it is October 17 I am past the halfway point of my vegan month. It is going well and it is going by fast! There are plenty of recipes I still want to try and I have lots of leftovers in the freezer. I'm definitely going to be eating vegan past this month (but not entirely vegan). I'm really enjoying this veganism and have learned so much and tried many different foods, and a lot more cooking than normal.

So since it's the halfway point here's a list of the things I've started missing:

• Eggs. I love eggs and the substitutes are great but sometimes I just want to scramble up some real eggs.
• Mallomars. If you recall from my last post I'm missing these now that it's Mallomars season.
• Candy corn. Love Halloween because of candy corn, but it's made with gelatin. I found a recipe for homemade candy corn that doesn't include gelatin or anything else that isn't vegan-friendly so I might give that a try.

Honestly I think that's it. It's a short list, but I'm not really missing anything else because I've found great subsitutes.

I'm not missing ice cream because I love this!

So on the note of Mallomars, I mentioned last time that my mom mails them to me since they are hard to find down here. Well, about an hour after I wrote the last post, I was at Publix and found a (very small) supply of Mallomars. Well, at least I know I can find them here.

Mallomars, hidden in with all the Oreos.

Pre-roasting.

 So for some reason I'm totally in love with roasted veggies lately. So one night I decided to roast up some veggies that I needed to use up before they would go bad. So I took some carrots, celery, and also some potatoes and seasoned them up a bit with oil, italian seasoning, paprika (of course), and some salt and roasted them in the oven. Delicious. Served it over some rice. It was a super easy meal and very delicious. I had leftover veggies so I put them in some tupperware and put it in the fridge (knew I'd be eating them a lot over the next few days.

Roasted veggies. So amazing.

Served with some delicious white rice.

Terrible picture but I love quinoa.

 So then the next day I didn't have much time for dinner so I thought I would have a vegan burger that I could quickly microwave. I didn't have any bread so I thought I'd just serve it over rice. But then I realized I had rice the night before with the veggies so I should come up with an alternative. I couldn't think of what else to do with them though given everything that I had in my kitchen. Then I realized that I had quinoa that I had yet to (ever) use. Yes, I've never cooked with quinoa before. So I cooked up some quinoa which I seasoned with a little bit of garlic salt. Delicious.




So I sometimes feel the need for a snack, but I've been wanting something healthy and vegan. I've made roasted chickpeas before so I was in the mood for those earlier this week. They are super easy to make. You just take canned chickpeas (I usually do two cans at a time), rinsed and drained. Season them up however you'd like. I used some canola oil, paprika (of course), some Italian seasoning, and a little bit of sea salt. Spread them evenly over a baking sheet and bake at 400 F for about 40 minutes (keeping an eye on them for the last 10 minutes so they don't burn). Delicious. Lasted me a few days (surprisingly). I might make some more tonight for my road trip tomorrow.

Pre-roasting

Roasted.

So the last couple of days I haven't felt like doing much because I've been pretty sick (upper respiratory infection and viral bronchitis). Good times. So last night I didn't have much of an appetite and didn't feel like cooking anyway so I had some Amy's frozen vegan mac and cheese that I heated up in the microwave. It was pretty good and a perfect portion size when I wasn't feeling well.

Amy's Rice Mac and Cheeze.

Zucchini cake batter.

Tonight for dinner I decided to make some zucchini cakes. I found the recipe from VeganDad. I modified the recipe a little bit. I didn't have soy yogurt and Publix doesn't sell it. I didn't have time (or energy) the last couple of days to get downtown to Ever'man's so I thought I'd experiment with modifying the recipe. I used a little extra soy milk and also whisked some softened vegan butter into the wet ingredients. I also seasoned up the batter with some paprika and nutritional yeast flakes. I used about a tablespoon and a half of batter for each cake and fried them up in canola oil. Otherwise I kept the recipe the same. I didn't make it with the tomato-onion relish either, but I'll try that the next time. They came out pretty good. I want to see if I can cook them more like pancakes or maybe bake them somehow so that they aren't fried in all that oil. I had them with the rest of my leftover roasted veggies. It was a delicious dinner.

Zucchini cakes and roasted veggies.

I made 12 of these with the recipe.

This past Saturday some friends and I took a spontaneous day trip to New Orleans (3 hour drive). We left around 7:30am (when we had planned to leave at 6:30am). We went to the aquarium, the zoo, and then wandered around the French Quarter. I loved the aquarium (of course, but was sad that the penguins were on hiatus while their exhibit was renovated). We got a deal where we got admission to the aquarium, an IMAX movie, and the zoo for only $19. So we saw an IMAX about coral reefs and the destruction of them (in 3D). That was pretty cool, but sadly not narrated by Morgan Freeman. The zoo was really awesome too though some exhibits were also under renovation so there were some animals we couldn't see. We tried to find some vegan friendly restaurants (and found plenty) but the two we tried for lunch were closed. So we skipped on lunch and had an early dinner at The Gumbo Shop. I had a vegan gumbo which was pretty delicious. Everyone else's food looked awesome too. After dinner we wandered around the French Quarter. I may have gotten a hand grenade to drink (amazing). We saw some street performers doing awesome break dancing. It was a great time. Then we drove back to Pcola that night.

Audubon Aquarium of the Americas in New Orleans.

Last night I did some baking. I baked some vegan banana bread with a recipe I found from a google search. I used a smaller pan than the recipe called for so I also made some muffins with the batter. It came out really amazing, and the people who have tried it agree. I call it a success.

What's left of it. I used vegan choc. chips for a couple of the muffins.

So this weekend will be my first vegan vacation. I am leaving tomorrow and driving down to Melbourne, FL to visit my Alma Mater (Florida Tech) for my sorority's (Alpha Phi) alumnae weekend. I'm really excited because I haven't been down there in a while (April, I think?). I'm looking forward to the trip, but I'm worried about my food options, especially since we have some events involving food but I don't know if I'll have options. It's okay though because I know I'll figure something out and I'm also taking some stuff with me. We'll see how it goes.

Sorry for such a long post. I'll have another one sometime early next week.